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      Ministry of Design creates shared office spaces in Kuala Lumpur skyscraper

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      Marble-clad columns and bronze detailing line the soaring entrance lobby that Ministry of Design has created for the YTL Headquarters in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.It is one of several shared areas created by Ministry of Design in the Malaysian construction company YTL’s new office skyscraper by Kohn Pedersen Fox, which combines all of its staff departments in one place for the first time.
      Alongside the giant entrance area, the studio has created an oak-lined cafe and three storeys of varied meeting spaces shared by 1,000 YTL employees.

      Above: the YTL Headquarters skyscraper. Top image: the office’s entrance lobby

      “The brief for Ministry of Design was to design the public areas shared by these departments,” the studio explained.
      “As such, Ministry of Design sought to create a series of choreographed spatial experiences which aim to balance YTL’s legacy of corporate professionalism with a future-forward attitude that embraces change.”

      Marble-clad columns and cushioned benches line the entrance lobby
      The YTL Headquarters’ entrance lobby is positioned at ground level and measures 25 metres in height.
      Ministry of Design’s goal was to enhance the “majestic” quality of this vast space while ensuring it was welcoming and human in scale.

      The marble is offset by bronze accents throughout
      To achieve this, the studio developed a restrained material palette, dominated by the soaring, white columns clad in Bugatsa marble that run the length of the lobby.
      Floor-to-ceiling windows are positioned behind the columns to illuminate them and maximise natural light throughout the day, while making the space “glow like a lantern in the evening”.

      The lift lobby is highly symmetrical
      To obscure the height of the columns, each one is punctured by rectangular insets and bronze accents, while a cloud-like installation hangs between them.
      Cushioned benches that mimic Mies van der Rohe’s Barcelona chairs have also been slotted between the columns at floor level, framed by tall, gridded structures made from bronze.

      The cafe features a rough grey-granite counter
      The lobby is complete with a deliberately symmetrical lift area at its rear, accessed through turnstiles and framed by a statement bronze doorway.
      This provides private access to YTL Headquarter’s upper levels, including the office cafe, various meeting spaces and a function room by Ministry of Design.

      A central spiral staircase is enclosed by slatted bronze
      Ministry of Design’s development of the cafe and meeting spaces are intended as an extension of the lobby area, featuring a complementary material palette but with warmer tones.
      In the cafe, this includes a rough, grey-granite counter with a polished black-granite worktop, set against a backdrop of bronze wall-mounted shelves and oak-lined walls.

      Ministry of Design creates robot training facility lined with metal and tube lights

      Oak has also been used to line the walls and ceilings of the meeting spaces, which cater for small and large, private to non-private gatherings.
      Ministry of Design achieved this through the combination of communal tables and open areas, alongside enclosed meeting rooms and acoustically-private spaces.

      The staircase connects the cafe to the office spaces
      In the open, shared meeting areas, the oak walls form a backdrop to black powder-coated lighting fixtures and seating upholstered with neutral Saum & Viebahn textiles.
      Silver mink marble flooring lines the floor, while black Nero Marquina and elegant white Calacatta marble are used across the tabletops.

      Oak lines the walls of the shared meeting spaces
      The private meeting areas are complete with softer furnishings and finishes, including brown-leather chairs, carpet floors and timber tables.
      The meeting spaces are complete with a statement spiral stair at their heart, which connects them to the cafe. It is lined with leather handrails that are enveloped by slats of powder-coated bronze and positioned on top of a bed of black gravel.

      The private meeting spaces feature softer furnishings and carpeted floors
      Ministry of Design is an architecture and interior design studio that was founded in 2004 by Colin Seah. Its headquarters are in Singapore, and it has two more offices in Beijing and Kuala Lumpur.
      Other recent projects by the firm include an all-white co-living space called Canvas House, a futuristic sports store in Singapore Airport and a robot training facility lined with metal and tube lights.
      Photography is by David Yeow.
      Project credits:
      Ministry of Design team: Colin Seah, Joyce Low, Ruth Chong, Kevin Leong , Damien Saive, Namrata Mehta, Fai Suvisith, Justin Lu, Zhang Hang, Maggie Lek, Kaye Mojica, Richard Herman, Rais Rahman, Tasminah Ali and Azilawanti WatiArchitectural design: Kohn Pedersen FoxAssociates design: Syarikat Pembenaan Yeoh Tiong Lay Sdn BhdArchitect of record: Veritas Design GroupLobby art: Leaves by Studio Sawada Design Co Ltd

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      Anupama Kundoo's handmade architecture features in Louisiana Museum exhibition

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      A major exhibition at the Louisiana Museum in Denmark shines a spotlight on Anupama Kundoo, an Indian architect with an unique knowledge of traditional materials and craft traditions.Anupama Kundoo – Taking Time offers an insight into the ideas driving Kundoo’s “slow architecture” approach, which she has applied to both housing and community infrastructure.

      The first room, The Architecture of Time, is dedicated to archive material
      Favouring hand-made elements over mass-produced components, her work centres around ongoing, intensive research into sustainable practices and materials.
      This is revealed here through the inclusion of Kundoo’s architectural archive, which not only contains a number of intricate models but also various construction tools and material samples.

      Architectural models reveal the design of Kundoo’s own home, Wall House

      Exhibition highlights include a full-scale mockup of Kundoo’s affordable housing concept, Full Fill Home, which debuted at the Venice Architecture Biennale in 2016.
      There are also detailed models of Kundoo’s own home, Wall House, a building that champions regional building traditions like achakal bricks and terracotta roofing systems.

      Wall House was built with local traditions like achakal bricks and terracotta roofing
      Anupama Kundoo – Taking Time is the latest instalment in a series of exhibitions titled The Architect’s Studio, curated by Kjeld Kjeldsen and Mette Marie Kallehauge. In each, the aim has been to reveal the process behind the buildings.

      Ten key projects by Indian architect Anupama Kundoo

      “Kundoo tries to return qualitative time to the production of architecture – by human work and human hand, which naturally takes longer than machines but involves a far better sense of materials, detail, space and the building’s relationship to the site,” said the curators.
      “Looking at Kundoo’s buildings, it is impossible not to sense that they are unique works, the epitome of site-specific architecture.”

      There is a full-scale mockup of Kundoo’s affordable housing concept, Full Fill Home
      The exhibition consists of two parts. The first room, called The Architecture of Time, is dedicated to archive material. Here, 13 building models are displayed alongside an assortment of artefacts.
      There are three tables of materials: one featuring a mix of natural stones and wood, one covered in earth (both rammed and fired), and one exploring cement and concrete.
      Also in this room is a model of the Volontariat Homes for Homeless Children, a cluster of dome-shaped housing units made from handmade mud bricks, and Hut Petite Ferme, the first house Kundoo designed for herself.

      Other featured projects include the domed Volontariat Homes for Homeless Children
      The second room, titled Co-creation, hones in on Auroville – the city where Kundoo has been based for the majority of her career, and where many of her buildings are located.
      Here, the focus is on Kundoo’s largest project to date – the 240,000-square-metre housing development, Lines of Goodwill. A large model, along with 1:1 scale material samples, reveals Kundoo’s strategies for environmentally sensitive homes that connect residents to nature.

      The Co-creation room reveals Kundoo’s masterplan for Lines of Goodwill in Auroville
      This is the fourth exhibition that the Louisiana has hosted as part of The Architect’s Studio series, following retrospectives of Chinese architect Wang Shu, Chilean architect Alejandro Aravena and Mexican architect Tatiana Bilbao.
      “Of course, the whole exhibition series is to do with different cultures,” Kjeldsen previously told Dezeen.
      Anupama Kundoo – Taking Time opened on 8 October and continues until 31 January at the Louisiana Museum. See Dezeen Events Guide for an up-to-date list of architecture and design events taking place around the world.

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      Freitag store in Kyoto is designed to resemble the brand's own warehouse

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      Hazard lines and metal shelving are some of the industrial finishes that Torafu Architects has included in bag brand Freitag’s store in Kyoto – which even includes its own workshop.Freitag’s Kyoto store, which is shortlisted in the small retail interior category of the 2020 Dezeen Awards, occupies what was formerly two separate retail units in the city’s Nakagyo-ku district.
      The interiors of the store have been designed by Torafu Architects to look like Freitag’s logistics warehouse at the brand’s headquarters in Zurich, Switzerland.

      Top image: the store’s exterior. Above: hazard lines have been painted on some of the store’s surfaces

      Industrial-style details have been incorporated throughout the 80-square-metre space, which the architecture practice said they left in a “skeleton state”. For example, black-and-yellow hazard lines have been painted around one of the store’s structural columns.
      Similar lines appear beneath the green cash desk. Just opposite sits a matching rubber-topped counter where customers will be able to set down and inspect any potential purchases.
      PVC flap curtains were used to screen off the shop’s storeroom, which is enclosed by a volume clad in wood-wool boards. Simple strip lights have also been fitted across the ceiling.

      Freitag’s bags are displayed on metal shelves or stored in drawers
      Bags are displayed on metal shelves or on top of pallets which have been stacked up in the store’s front window.
      Uniform rows of drawers that run across the entire left-hand side of the store contain more Freitag bags, each of which is crafted from recycled truck tarpaulin.
      The brand first removes any eyelets or straps left on the tarps before cutting, washing and turning them into a range of different bag models such as backpacks, totes or holdalls.

      Freitag’s Sweat-Yourself-Shop is a tiny factory for making bags

      Towards the rear of the store is a workshop, where customers will be able to experiment with using tarp offcuts themselves and turn them into a small accessory of their choice.

      The store includes a workshop where customers can make their own accessories
      More industrial touches appear on Freitag’s facade, where a red-steel beam has been installed in place of the wall that once divided the two retail units.
      A large drawing of a truck has also been created on the store’s side elevation so that customers “never forget the origin of every unique specimen”.

      The store’s side elevation features a mural of a truck
      Torafu Architects was founded in 2004 by Koichi Suzuno and Shinya Kamuro. The practice’s Freitag Kyoto store will compete against four other projects in the small interior category of this year’s Dezeen Awards.
      Amongst them is an Aesop store in Shinjuku, which features a contrasting mix of steel and plaster surfaces.
      Also on the list is Small Icon, a tiny bakery in Yokohama that’s decorated in the same warm, golden hues as a loaf of bread.
      Photography is by Taichi Ano.

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      Minimalist Japanese guesthouse and robot dog feature in today's Dezeen Weekly newsletter

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      The latest edition of our Dezeen Weekly newsletter features the transformation of a 100-year-old townhouse in Kyoto into a tranquil and moody guesthouse.

      Readers were in awe over the Maana Kamo guesthouse, which Japanese architect Uoya Shigenori created by stripping back and reconfiguring a 100-year-old townhouse in Kyoto’s Higashiyama District.
      The guesthouse is shortlisted in the hotel and short stay interior of the year category at Dezeen Awards 2020. All of the award winners will be announced next week.

      A robot dog will be used at Battersea Power Station

      Other stories in this week’s newsletter include UK architecture studio Foster + Partners taking on a robot dog to oversee construction at Battersea Power Station, a design competition in collaboration with LG Display, 30 architect-designed kitchens and a concept for a grow-your-own steak kit that uses human cells.
      Subscribe to Dezeen Weekly
      Dezeen Weekly is a curated newsletter that is sent every Thursday, containing highlights from Dezeen. Dezeen Weekly subscribers will also receive occasional updates about events, competitions and breaking news.
      Read the latest edition of Dezeen Weekly. You can also subscribe to Dezeen Daily, our daily bulletin that contains every story published in the preceding 24 hours.
      Subscribe to Dezeen Weekly ›

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      Daosheng Design creates monochromatic bar with looping bamboo sculpture

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      The Flow of Ecstatic is a bar in Dongguan, China, designed by Daosheng Design with an all-grey interior featuring a swooping ceiling sculpture of bamboo.Located in the city’s business district, the bar counter is topped by stainless steel, the walls are covered in textured grey silk and the floors are tiled in a matching grey.

      Top: the stainless steel bar counter. Above: swooping bamboo decoration
      A looping bamboo sculpture is suspended from the ceiling. Daosheng Design said this is intended to evoke the brushstrokes of traditional Chinese calligraphy and the movements of the dragon dance.
      This dance is performed on festive occasions and involves a team of dancers moving in synchronicity under a colourful silk dragon costume.
      The serpentine bamboo shape is designed to be evocative of this fluid and dynamic performance.

      A sculpture perches on the bar

      Daosheng Design said the studio deliberately designed the bar to encourage patrons to decompress from their hectic urban lifestyles.
      “Life and entertainment should be two sides,” said the designers.
      “However, in the era of rapid development, life sped by, and modern people hurried to catch up, and it was difficult to slow down and enjoy life.”

      Different seating areas occupy corners of the bar
      Different seating areas invite different forms of leisure activity, such as high brass-backed stools at the bar for sampling drinks or tables with banquettes for dining.
      Groupings of triangular stools cluster around low tables for casual drinks with friends.

      Grey fabric covers the walls
      All of the furniture and furnishings are realised in shades of grey. Figurative sculptures are dotted around the room, including one that is perched on the edge of the bar.

      Atelier XY covers cocktail bar in Shanghai with over 1,000 insects

      The Flow of Ecstatic has been shortlisted for Dezeen Awards 2020 in the bar interior category, alongside a bar decorated with insects trapped in amber and a bar in London decorated with a mural of female faces.
      Photography is by Jack Qin.
      Project credits:
      Interiors: Daosheng DesignLead designer: YongMing HeParticipating designers: Daosheng Design TeamClient: Excellence Real Estate

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      Issey Miyake store in Osaka is splashed with water-themed details

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      Seating that resembles bars of soap and pipe-like clothing rails appear inside this Issey Miyake store in Osaka’s Minamisemba neighbourhood, which was designed by Shingo Noma.The store, monikered Issey Miyake Semba, is shortlisted in the large retail interior category of the 2020 Dezeen Awards.
      Japanese designer Shingo Noma created the interiors to reference Osaka’s long history of maritime trade – the city’s port has been in operation since before the year 300 AD.

      The store’s exterior features a sculpture that looks like a tap

      “Linking the city of water, Osaka, with the continuous circulation of interesting ideas that bubble up from making things at Issey Miyake to the image of the store, I arrived at the design concept of a ‘fount of creativity’,” explained Noma, who is also art director of the gallery inside Issey Miyake’s Kyoto branch.
      “If you turn on the faucet, there will always be a gushing flow of interesting ideas.”
      Water-inspired decor details have therefore been introduced at every point in the store. A four-pronged silver sculpture that looks like the handle of a traditional tap has been mounted on the facade, just above the brand’s logo.

      Concrete covers most of the store’s interior
      Inside, on the store’s ground floor, garments are hung from bending metal rails that have been shaped to mimic water pipes.
      The same pipe-like tubing supports the display tables, which all feature white, glossy countertops – almost reminiscent of the inner lining of bathtubs or sinks.

      Naoto Fukasawa inserts Issey Miyake store into 132-year-old Kyoto townhouse

      Guests can relax on the white, blue and grey seating poufs that have been dotted across the room. Each one has a wide, rounded form and a raised lip running around its outer edge, emulating the shape of a bar of soap.

      The clothes rails and legs of the display tables are meant to look like water pipes
      The same fixtures can be seen down in the store’s basement, which also includes an exhibition space. At the time of opening, it showed a series of works by Japanese illustrator Seitaro Kuroda, including his various depictions of boats and ships.
      Surfaces throughout the store, including the floors, have been washed over with concrete. The ceiling and its network of exposed service ducts have been rendered in white.

      An exhibition area can be found in the store’s basement
      Issey Miyake Semba will go head-to-head against five other retail spaces in this year’s Dezeen Awards. Amongst them is high-end fashion store The Webster, which occupies a rotund, pink-concrete building in Los Angeles designed by architect David Adjaye.
      Also on the shortlist is the streetwear brand Supreme’s San Francisco store, where studio Brinkworth has installed a huge skateboarding bowl.
      Photography is by Masaya Yoshimura and Copist.

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      Nook Pod is a gabled workspace

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      Dezeen Showroom: Nook has created a family of gabled private working pods that respond to changes in office environments after the coronavirus pandemic.The Nook Pod has a pitched frame enclosing chairs and benches for working.
      It comes in three arrangements including a Huddle Pod for two people, with a glass partition between them, an Open Shelter for one person, or as A Solo Booth, which involves splitting the structure in two.
      The brand envisions the pods helping companies provide extra space as people return to work.

      Nook Pods can create private workspaces within offices

      “Social distancing places pressure on the capacity of any space,” said Nook.
      “As the flow of employees gradually increases, businesses will be challenged to provide spaces that work both in terms of social distancing and everyday productivity.”

      Nook believes the pods are suitable for socially distant working
      The gabled structures are built on lockable wheels so they can be moved around easily. The modules can also be attached together in a variety of arrangements.
      “The fact that Nooks are built on lockable wheels becomes a very valuable proposition,” added the brand. “Unused and unloved corners of an office can be transformed into meeting spaces and breakout areas simply by wheeling a Nook into position.”

      Three different arrangements – Huddle Pod, Open Shelter and Solo Booth – suit different needs
      Nook Pods have a hard exterior and a textile interior for added comfort. Additional details can include added backdrops and lighting control.
      In addition to offices, Nook said the pods can be used for a variety of other spaces like in hospitals to provide doctors and nurses with a place to relax. They were also recently installed in the stadium of American football team the Las Vegas Raiders.
      “These Sensory Nooks are equipped with soothing lighting and tactile surfaces to provide neurodiverse fans with a place to relax and recharge if the atmosphere of the stadium ever becomes too much,” said the brand.
      Product: Nook PodBrand: Nook PodContact: hello@nookpod.com
      About Dezeen Showroom: Dezeen Showroom offers an affordable space for brands to launch new products and showcase their designers and projects to Dezeen’s huge global audience. For more details email showroom@dezeen.com.

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      Project #13 is an office for Studio Wills + Architects that doubles up as a home

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      Studio Wills + Architects has reconfigured an apartment in Serangoon, Singapore so that it accommodates the studio’s own office and a snug home for its founder.The home and office, which Studio Wills + Architects has named Project #13, is shortlisted in the small interior category of this year’s Dezeen Awards. It measures 64 square metres and takes over a 30-year-old apartment inside one of Singapore’s public housing blocks.
      Throughout the day it functions as a workspace, while in the evenings it serves as a home to the studio’s founder, William Ng.

      The office is on the left-hand side of the apartment

      “The design really started just as two distinct and autonomous spaces under one roof that can be used independently and/or interchangeably,” Ng told Dezeen.
      “One part eventually evolved as a home for me, as it minimises time spent commuting between work.”

      At the rear of the office is a tiled bathroom
      Although there wasn’t an abundance of space in the apartment, Ng and his studio first decided to section off part of the floor plan and turn it into a foyer.
      “It creates a ‘buffer zone’ between the public and private domains, and at the same time enables two separate entry points, allowing the spaces within to operate independently,” explained the studio.

      The foyer leads through into the right-hand side of the apartment, which includes a relaxed break-out area
      A door to the left of the foyer leads through the studio’s office, at the centre of which are two long work desks for staff.
      Set to the side of the room is a tall wooden volume that is integrated with storage and a tea-making station. There’s additionally a couple of shelving units for presenting architectural models.
      Towards the rear of the office is a kitchenette and a bathroom – complete with a shower – that is entirely clad with square blue-grey tiles.

      A wooden volume with in-built stairs leads to a mezzanine level
      During office hours, staff can spill over into the right-hand side of the apartment to work.
      It plays host to a relaxing lounge dressed with a plush, cream-coloured chaise longue and a lantern-style lamp that emits a warm glow.

      Up on the mezzanine, there is a contemplative tea room
      There’s another tall wooden volume, inbuilt with stairs that lead up to a mezzanine-level tea room where staff can escape for “quiet and contemplation”.
      They can also get a bird’s-eye-view of the office through an opening that has been inserted in the wall up here.
      Beyond the volume, there is an additional table and set of chairs which are used for meetings and another toilet.

      A wall opening by the tea room provides elevated views over the office
      These turn into domestic spaces for Ng after staff leave. Dinner can be enjoyed at the meeting table, the break-out area becomes a living room and the tea room serves as sleeping quarters once the seat cushions are replaced with a roll-out bed.
      Directly beneath the mezzanine there is also built-in storage for Ng’s clothes and dressing room.

      On the other side of the wooden volume is a meeting room, which can also serve as a dining area
      Ng told Dezeen that having work and home so closely interlinked has been particularly useful during the coronavirus pandemic when there have been national lockdowns, more commonly referred to as “circuit breakers” in Singapore.

      KCC Design creates monochrome office for own studio in former factory space

      “Before the circuit breaker, home was felt to be more within an office, but during the circuit breaker, it felt more like an office in the home; this was probably because the boundaries between the two shift and change with use,” he explained.
      “The dining/meeting room was a space for zoom meetings without interference from adjacent spaces; also, the foyer became a space where food deliveries and material samples could be left with no physical contact.”

      At night, the tea room transforms into a bedroom
      Studio Wills + Architects’ Project #13 is one of five small interiors shortlisted in the 2020 Dezeen Awards. Others include Single Person, a design gallery in Shanghai that’s designed to resemble a cave, and Smart Zendo, a family home in Hong Kong that’s fitted with voice-activated technology and space-saving furniture.
      Photography is by Khoo Guo Jie and Finbarr Fallon.
      Project credits:
      Architect: Studio Wills + ArchitectDesign team: Ng William, Kho KeguangC&S engineer: CAGA Consultants PteFitting-out contractor: Sin Hiap Chuan Wood WorksGeneral contractor: Wah Sheng Construction Pte

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